Interview

Everyone has their own dream job in their intellect. The farmer, receptionist, college professor, mail carrier, stockbroker, athlete and many others can explain their daily routines and dreams differently in their own words. Everyone's requirements and expectations from their work are different. Even for the lowliest laborers; work is a search, sometimes successful, sometimes not. There are people who feel caged in by their jobs. I think Erica is one of them.

She has been working with the USPS for about 26 years. Her original position was "Mark up clerk" and now with her hard work and efforts; she has become "Diversity Development Specialist". She is eligible to retire in 7 years at the age of 55 but she believes, she is still young enough to pursue a second career. She has now higher aspirations to finish her degree in "General Sociology" followed by a Masters in "Diversity" and to become a "Diversity Consultant" for a firm which will lead her to travel within the United States.

As a child, Erica was interested in Anthropology but her mother frightened her on it. She thinks her mother just wanted to make sure that Erica would not leave her side. Erica is presently part of a new consulting firm of Bloomfield College called, "Center for Culture and Communication." The firm is in its humble beginning and they speak and give training within city offices, churches; where they are attaining experience and building a positive reputation. Since she is a consultant for the U.S.P.S. as a Diversity Development Specialist, she cannot participate in giving training within the USPS as part of the consulting firm.. She thinks, once she completes her Masters in Diversity, she will be looking to become a Diversity Consultant for a firm and that will lead her to travel within the U.S. There are big bucks involved in this job as a salary and benefits, since traveling and lodging gets paid by the firm. Once she gets an experience, she is planning to begin her own firm.

Erica at 16 worked in a clothing industry located on Delancey Street in New York City. "Manhattan was being established at that time", she says. After about 3 weeks, she left that job. She didn't like the working ethics of her employer. She said that it was their culture which was imposed on her that frazzled her into leaving. She was required to attend to customers and in doing so she was instructed to be relentless in chasing after them into buying something from the store. She was expected to work straight hours without any breaks with a half an hour lunch, which was constantly interrupted by the owners in getting her to really not to have a lunch at all.

At the age of 17, she took a summer job in Urban Renewal as a receptionist. Urban Renewal was a city office and its focus was simply to manage apartment buildings within Manhattan. Although she was offered to stay and they were ready to pay for her schooling, she was suspicious about promises of that sort eventually not being fulfilled and declined the offer. She returned to High School and got her diploma instead. She often wonders if they would have indeed fulfilled that offer. After graduating High School, she was employed as a teller. She disliked the job because her mentor discriminated her and she did not make her feel welcomed. She just left rather than to tolerate her behaviors, attitudes or anything that she perceived as mistreatment.

Erica then was employed by the U. S. Postal Service in 1979. She has been employed there for about 26 years. It has not always been in the area where she is employed now. Her original position was "Mark up clerk". Its function was to do the data entry of addresses, in order to forward client's mail to their new address where they have moved. After 8-9 years, she applied and was promoted to the position of "Office clerk" in a different facility that dealt with repairing the mailbags that would hold mail for shipping internet/intranet